When You Need a Friend
by Mrs.Mchale1994
Summary: Takes place right before 1X04. What if the first person Quinn told she was pregnant wasn't Finn? Sometimes the friends you barely acknowledge anymore are the ones you need the most. Quinn and Artie FRIENDSHIP. In Artie's point of view.


When you're a little kid, people tell you "Not all friendships last forever." As you get older you realize that they prove to be right. One thing they happen to leave out is that if you were friends once, you can always be friends again. Especially when you need each other; when you need each other, it might as well be like you were still the best of friends. This was proven to me with someone, and that someone was Quinn Fabray. Believe it or not there was a time when Quinn and I were best friends. We grew up together; she lives not that far from me and her mom and my mom used to have coffee while we played. It was a cute kind of thing, like running around outside all day, eating ice cream, and then passing out together in front of a Disney movie when it got late. When we were eight and my accident happened, she came and visited me every day. When I got home from the hospital and couldn't sneak out my window to go walk down to the creek at night anymore, she would sneak into my window and would be cool to just watch movies instead. As we approached middle school and high school, things changed. There was never a falling out, and we would always be nice to each other when we saw each other but that was just it, we didn't that much anymore. She got the captain spot on the cheerios and started dating Finn Hudson. Than sophomore year rolled around and glee was started, and I was surprised and happy when Quinn joined. I mean I knew it was mainly because she wanted to spy on Finn and Rachel, but I was happy none the less. A few weeks later after she first joined though is when things changed. It was late on a Friday night, around 1 in the morning. I was a night owl so I was still awake when I suddenly heard a knock at my window. I jumped a little bit and slowly got up off of my bed, turned off my TV, got into my chair and rolled over, I looked out to see no other than Quinn. She was in black sweat pants, a white tank top, with a pink unzipped hoodie, her hair was straight and down. It was weird to see her like this, she was pretty much always in her cheerios uniform, or wearing more formal clothes, and it had been a while since I saw her like that. I noticed right away though that she was crying, as in the moonlight I could see tears reflecting off her face. I opened my window.

"Quinn?" I whispered down, "What are you doing out there?" I asked her.

"I-I-I was trying to get u-up the nerve to call, but I d-didn't know where else to go!" she said breaking down into sobs.

"Don't worry about it, c'mon up." I told her as she made the easy climb into my room, considering my room was on the first floor of our house. I grabbed her hand and helped her in. She walked over to my bed and sat down and I wheeled over to turn on a very dim light on my lamp. I hoisted myself on to the bed next to her as she continued to cry.

"I-I really just didn't know who else to go to!" she cried, I put my hand on her shoulder, worried but confused, I mean she had a ton of friends, a boyfriend, and yet she was choosing to come to me.

"Quinn what's wrong?" I asked as my hand rubbed up and down her back.

"I-I made a mistake!"

"What kind of mistake?"

She took a deep breath, "I'm pregnant." she said as her teary eyes looked up at me. I felt my jaw drop, this couldn't be right. It just couldn't.

"What? No Quinn you can't be, are you sure?" I asked her.

She nodded, "I took seven tests, seven. They were all positive."

I took a deep breath and pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her. She cried into my chest as my hand stroked her hair.

"Shhh, Shhh its okay, its okay, its okay. Everything's going to be okay." I said but my head was reeling. I didn't understand how this happened to Quinn, she took religion pretty seriously. When we were little kids I asked her once why she always gripped that cross necklace that she wore around her neck so much and I remember she responded to a tee. _"My mommy and daddy say that this means that you are going to do everything this cross tells you if you wear it, especially be abstinent until you're married, although I don't know what that means yet." _The more I thought about it though is the more I realized those were her parents beliefs, most likely not hers. Somewhere along the way they must've gotten lost, but looking at her now all I saw was fear and regret.

"I-I k-now we don't talk as much anymore and I'm sorry but I've missed my friend and I j-just found this out and I needed y-you and-"

"Shhh, Quinn don't worry about it; you never have to worry about it."

She cried for a while longer, and eventually sat up and told me everything. The whole story of what happened with Puck. I never liked Puck; he was a douche who had attempted and a lot of the times succeeded in doing awful things to me. I don't think however, that I have ever hated Puck so much in that moment when Quinn told me the part of the story that before anything happened and she asked, _"What about protection?" _ And he just responded, _"Trust me babe, I got it."_ The fact that he didn't even care about the chance that he could totally screw up her life by that lie, and that it lead to actually screwing up her life. Puck slept around and a lot of the girls he slept with, with lack of a better word, were sluts. Girls, who did it all the time and because of that, were most likely on the pill. Quinn wasn't like them, she was innocent, virginal when they did it, and Puck knew that. He knew it and he just talked her into it and let it happen. Yeah this was Quinn's doing too, I mean she made a mistake, a couple of mistakes, but I still couldn't get over that anger I felt towards Puck in this moment; for leaving her carrying his baby, all scared and alone. Then she said something that surprised me,

"I have to tell Finn it's his."

"What?"

"I have to; I don't have any other choice."

"Yes you do, you don't have to lie."

"I know, I don't want to but I mean c'mon Artie, its Puck!"

She had a point, "Quinn I can't tell you to do that."

"I'm not asking you too, but this is what's best for me. I have to take care of myself right now, myself and this baby. Please, I'm not asking you to approve just don't tell anyone please."

"Of course I won't, look your secret's safe with me."

She let out a weak smile. "I'm scared." She whimpered out.

"Shhh, I know you are. Listen to me though; you're going to get through this. It'll be hard, but you'll get through it."

She looked up at me and nodded, "Thank you Artie."

I smiled, "Is there anything else I can do?"

"There is one thing. Can I stay here tonight? I told my parents I was sleeping over at Santana's when I went out to get the tests."

"Yeah of course." I tell her

"Thanks." She says and lies back on my pillow, and curls up into a ball. I flick off my lamp and lay down next to her, and it wasn't long until we were both asleep.

I woke up the next morning around 10 to see Quinn already awake, sitting on my bed.

"Morning," I said tiredly, "You okay?" I asked her as I noticed she looked uncomfortable and a little pale.

She tried to answer but instead I saw her gag and stick her hand in front of her mouth and dash out of my room to the bathroom across the hall. At first I was alarmed but then I quickly reminded myself that this was normal. I mean she was pregnant after all, there was bound to be symptoms, including morning sickness. I wanted to go across the hall and help in some way, maybe hold her hair back, but she locked the door. I got the memo and just backed up into my room and got back on my bed until she was ready to come back in. After about ten minutes she comes back to my room, her face completely drained of any color and she was a little shaky.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I will be. Sorry about that, it's been happening for a few days now." she said as she sits back next to me.

I shrugged, "Don't worry about it, besides it's not like I've never seen you puke before. Do you remember the teacup ride at the kindergarten carnival?" I laughed.

She let out a brief smile, "Oh god you remember that?"

"Of course, I mean I said goodbye to my favorite pair of sneakers that day. It was hard to forget."

She giggled, "Thanks Artie." She said suddenly.

"For what?"

"For everything, especially for not judging me."

"I could never judge you, life happens. If I of all people don't know that, than I don't know who does."

She looked down at her stomach and slightly nodded, I could tell she didn't want to say anymore. Not that she could because just at that moment my mom came through my door.

"Artie are you okay? I heard someone throwing-oh hi Quinn, what are doing you here?" she asked sweetly.

"Oh um, I just stopped by to give Artie something for school." She mumbled out really quickly.

My mom looked confused but just decided to buy into it, "Oh okay, um still are you guys okay? Quinn you look a little flushed sweetie." she told her.

"Yeah I'm fine now, I'm sorry about that I just wasn't feeling very well, must be a bug or something. I think I'll head home, thank you for everything and I'll see you at school on Monday, Artie." She said quickly as she headed out of my room and out the front door as my mom saw her out. Mom came back and sat down next to me on my bed.

"Does she know how far along?" she asked me, taking me by surprised.

"What?"

"Honey, I have three kids. I know morning sickness when I see it; she's pregnant. Does she know how far along she is?"

I sighed, "I um I don't know, probably five or six weeks." I said lowly.

"She slept over here last night didn't she?" my mom said.

"Yeah, she just um needed a place to go."

"I'm proud of you for doing that, you know she can stay here as much as she wants. It's just a shame, I didn't see this happening to Quinn."

"You're not the only one." I said lowly.

"Do her parents know?" she asked.

"No and mom you can't tell them! I swear you can't! You know Quinn's parents, they'll freak when they find out."

"I know. I won't, I won't tell anyone." She said with a smile and walked out.

Over the next few weeks, Quinn's pregnancy became less of a secret. All of glee found out, Finn thought he was going to be a father, and well I could tell Puck knew the truth. It took a lot of strength for me not to confront him. For me not get so angry at him for what he did, and that he needed to come clean and prove to Quinn that he could take care of this mess. Although I could tell in his eyes that's what he wanted to do, he just didn't know how. It was hard watching Quinn like this, she was sick all the time and crying a lot. I couldn't do anything though; this was happening and that was that. I never told anyone, not even Tina, about that night. I planned to keep it that way. All I knew though is that over the next nine months or whenever that my window would always be open for her. That night taught me that no matter what happens, no matter what direction a friendship goes in, there's always a pathway to go back.


End file.
